5.28.2010

I hope you'll all forgive me, but with all the end of the school year hoopla that's been going on around here, I don't have a Frugal Friday project to share with you today. I'm hoping that you've all been more productive than I have!

Hey, but take a minute and check out my fun interview right now over at Modern Bird Studios! And I might as well come clean because Megan told on me anyway...yes, I am thirty-something years old...and yes, I am a closet Twilight Fan. But, I know I'm not the only one...Megan...ahem...so no snickering.

You know"da rules"...

1. Please link directly to your Frugal Friday post, and not just to your blog.

2. Please link back to The Shabby Nest so that others can share in the Frugal goodness.

This was the view from our back deck yesterday in the early afternoon. Yes, that is snow. And yes, the last time I checked, the calendar said that it is the end of May. When I woke up yesterday morning to heavy, wet snow falling outside, I must admit, it weighed me down a little. Where is spring in these parts?

But then I looked at my kitchen table, and my mood lightened considerably.

Why?

One word...

Flowers.

Every couple of weeks, I grab myself a bunch of the $5 flowers at my local Wally world. Since their selection varies from week to week, I just grab whatever catches my eye.

This week it is this pretty bunch of yellow sunshine...indoor sunshine. They remind me of a Van Gogh painting.

Studies have proven that fresh flowers in the home can actually alleviate depression. And I figure $5 every couple of weeks is a worthy investment in my mental health.

5.24.2010

A couple of Frugal Fridays ago, I shared an art project for Mr. One's Tween room, and told you all it was being printed. Well, I got it in the mail on Friday (from my fabulous Father-In-Law - the art professor extraordinaire who printed it for me!) It looks even better in person.

Now, because it is a custom size, and my budget for the tween room is gone, I couldn't have it custom framed. So, I went and bought one of those standard sized cheapy poster frames. I was worried that it might look...well....cheap...but once I got the print mounted on foam core and framed up, it actually looks great!

I put it above the dresser/bedside table. Which now begs a question of you, my dear readers. I need to redo this dresser and I want your expert opinions...should I just give it a fresh coat of white paint...paint it with chalkboard paint...or give it a coat of dove gray? What say you? Please weigh-in in the comments and let me know what you think.

I also gave the lamp a little pick-me-up by switching out it's gold shade for a simple white one. It looks more modern, and lighter. So I think it will be staying for now.

Well, that's it for today's Tween room update! Don't forget to let me know what you think I should do with that dresser! (pretty please.)

5.20.2010

It's that time again!! Time for this week's edition of Frugal Friday at the Shabby Nest! Woot woot!

Today, I have another little "art on the cheap" project to share with you.

Some of you may remember the art I created for our main bathroom a couple of months ago. I just framed up some pretty fabric.

I still think the fabric is pretty, but I just wasn't feelin' it. I wanted something that was more "me".

BEFORE:

I'd been tossing around the idea of creating some canvases for a while, and had originally considered painting some with a chevron motif, but then I decided that something a little more organic would be better.

So here is what I came up with...

I started by creating a template (which I don't have a photo of). It consisted of the center shape that you see between the thick lines. Then I just traced it onto the canvas (over and over again) putting enough space between each one to create the lines that I then painted.

Here's a view of one of the paintings in-progress.

And here again, is the final project! Loving them!! And the clincher was that I just used some leftover latex paint from my rehabbed console. Perfect!AFTER

Now it's your turn...

You know "da rules"!

1. Link directly to your post, not just to your blog.2. Please link back to the Shabby Nest so others can enjoy the Frugal Goodness.3. Comment, comment, comment. Show our participants "the love!"

Did any of you see the feature in Elle Decor on Meg Ryan's beach cottage at Martha's Vineyard? I was completely infatuated with both the house itself, and with the actress' pared down design philosophy.

In her own words, "The whole idea is to keep things as simple as possible; I like everything pared down to its purest form."

I crave natural light in my home, and apparently, Meg is the same way....here's what she says about the light in here home...

"It’s absolutely beautiful, just operatic—how the sun rises and sets, and then the moon comes up and goes down. I’m so infatuated with it that I don’t have anything on the walls except for a couple of maps."

A woman after my own heart...Meg says she never stops looking for inspiration, “I do nothing but rip pages out of magazines. One idea leads to the next.” Amazing how that works.

Jenna of qa designs...the creative genius behind my new blog design...is having a fun giveaway at her cooking blog (yeah, she can cook too!)...for some vinyl chalkboards. Head over here to enter.

And finally, I've lowered the price of advertising/sponsorship spots on The Shabby Nest for the summer! Ads are now only $35/month or $90 for 3 months! That's a lot of advertising bang for your buck! If you're interested drop me an email!! (For more information on advertising at the Shabby Nest click here.)

5.19.2010

As always, I'm lovin' all the great Frugal Friday posts from last week's party. Now, I've decided that the problem with Frugal Fridays is that my to-do list increases every week as I add new fabulous projects that you all inspire! I guess that's a good problem to have, huh?

5.17.2010

Happy Monday, dear readers! It's been a jampacked weekend here at the Shabby Nest...full of party after party...some for the kiddos...some for the whole family...but somehow, despite the craziness, I managed to get in some good old house cleaning.

And while I was cleaning, and putting away wonderful, clean-smelling, fluffy piles of freshly washed and folded towels, I thought it might be fun to share my makeshift linen closet with you all.

I have mentioned before that the one thing this house truly lacks is closet space. So when we moved in, I had to figure out what to do about a linen closet.

Enter our antique salvaged cabinet. We saved this baby from the Hubby's parents' shed which was being demolished. It has had many reincarnations since we saved it. It has been a coat closet, a pantry, a china cabinet, and now it serves as my linen closet.

During one of the cabinet's reincarnations, I had the hubby add the second shelf. It serves as a perfect spot for towels. But because I have yet to convince the hubby that he wants to build another shelf, I had to be a bit creative for the rest of the storage.

Bed linens are piled high in a pretty basket, while smaller linens like pillow cases, light blankets, and shower curtains are stacked in wire baskets rescued from a now-defunct refrigerator at our former house.

On the top shelf? Pretty blue toile boxes that hold special treasures...the blessing outfits of my three boys (the Princess' blessing dress is on display in her room.)

I just love this very useful cabinet...and its latest role as linen closet. Do you, my dear readers, have a particular piece of furniture that you use and reuse in many different ways?

5.13.2010

It appears that you all like the thumbnails on Frugal Friday as much as I do...so they shall remain! Thanks to everyone who weighed in the subject.

Yesterday I promised to share with you a fabulous art idea that I created for Mr. One's room. It's my version of Pop Art....created on Picnik.com. I have talked about my love of Picnik before. But for those of you who don't know what Picnik is...it's a photo editing website that is super user friendly, and a lot of what they have to offer is free of charge. In fact, the entire art piece I created used only Picnik's free actions...so if you like it, you can make one too at no charge!

Now let's get down to business, shall we? I started with a photo of Mr. One which I uploaded to the site.

1. Then under the "create" tab, I chose an action called "posterize"...the photo below is one of the princess that has been posterized...you can see how it makes the image look almost illustrated.

2. Then because I was going for a Warhol-esque pop art look, I needed to change the color....4 times. To accomplish this, I used the "duo tone" action. This lets you choose two colors for your image. For each of the four colors I wanted (red, yellow, green and blue) I choose two shades...one light and one dark. I also played around with the brightness and fade until I got the look I was going for.

3. Once you have the color combo you're looking for, save the photo. But so you don't have to go through the first few steps again, when Picnik asks if you want to close the image or continue editing, choose "continue editing" and go back to the duo-tone action. Play around with the next set of colors...then save. etc.

4. Once you've created all four colors, you're going to choose the collage option on the Picnik home page. Then choose a 4 part grid and set the border width to zero (so you don't have any lines between the 4 photos.)

5. Picnik will ask you to upload each photo and lets you drag it into place in the collage. Once your collage is complete click done. Then you can create effects on your collage if you're so inclined.

6. Once I finished my collage, I decided the colors were too bright, so I dulled them down by adding just a touch of black and white, and a touch of sepia. That's it!

And here's the finished product!! I'm so excited with how this turned out. It's being printed right now, so I'll have to show you the framed-and-on-the-wall version next week! Until then, go play around with some of your own images at Picnik...you'll love it!!

Now it's your turn...

You know "da rules"!

1. Link directly to your post, not just to your blog.2. Please link back to the Shabby Nest so others can enjoy the Frugal Goodness.3. Comment, comment, comment. Show our participants "the love!"

5.12.2010

A few weeks ago, I talked about my plans for Mr. One's Tween bedroom. You may remember that I shared my tentative layout with you (below) and talked about the furniture we were planning on purchasing at IKEA.

Well, we got as far as purchasing the Expedit workstation and the Lillesand bed, and then due to unforseen circumstances, the budget ran out. So I put the project on hold for a while. And then I decided that it was silly to put it on hold just because I couldn't purchase everything I wanted...after all, do I or do I not preach the virtues of Frugal Decorating here on the old blog? "Well," says I, "maybe I should practice what I preach."

So today, I tackled putting together the bed. (And I did it all by myself because the hubby is currently suffering from a horrible bout of the flu...which I am fervently hoping skips by the rest of the family...poor hubby.)

WARNING: Lots of horrible indoor lighting photos coming your way...when I do the final reveal of this room, I promise to bring in our photography lights...maybe that will diminish the orang-y glow...

So here is the big ol' box it came in. And despite what Kate says in this post, I truly think this has to be the most boring photo ever posted on the internet.

And here is what I found inside the box....I love this headboard!! As I mentioned above, it's the Lillesand bed from IKEA. It's classic, but with clean contemporary lines. A perfect bed for my almost 10-year-old to grow up with...

The bed was really easy to assemble despite the fact that I was working by myself. Once I got everything out of the boxes, I was actually able to assemble the whole thing in about 15 minutes.

Then I had to talk Mr. One and the Princess into helping me drag the mattress and box spring into the room, and with a little help from Mr. One, I was able to get them in place. Here's the bed all dressed... again, with the horrible lighting, it's hard to tell in this photo, but the quilt and euros are a dark gray (from IKEA again) while the sheets are a soft goldenrod. I found a great set of pillowcases from Tar-jay in pale gray, dark gray and goldenrod as well. Love them!

But now, I'm not really lovin' the ticking drapes. They blend, and look okay...but that's all...just okay. I'm thinkin' I'm going to have to replace them...and I have an idea that involves the matching sheets to the striped pillowcases.

Finally, since my budget for this room is now GONE, I can't purchase the armoire I was hoping to get. Nor can I make the bedside tables. So I decided to rehab Mr. One's old white dresser and, if possible, to find a similar dresser at a thrift store or yard sale...then I could use them on either side of the bed as bedside tables...because I really like the look of having the little old dresser right where it is. I also really need to do something about that lamp...anyhoo...

Here's a closer view of the pillows, so you can get a bit of an idea what the stripes look like...drat that indoor lighting...

The room is really coming along...and Mr. One ADORES his new bed!

For this week's Frugal Friday, I'm going to share a fabulous piece of art I created for his room....I'm so excited!! And sometime next week, I'll share his workstation...and the injury I sustained while putting it together... ;-)